Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/159818 
Year of Publication: 
2014
Series/Report no.: 
Quaderni - Working Paper DSE No. 980
Publisher: 
Alma Mater Studiorum - Università di Bologna, Dipartimento di Scienze Economiche (DSE), Bologna
Abstract: 
We develop a dynamic investment options framework with optimal capital structure and analyze the effect of debt maturity. We find that in the absence of financing constraints short-term debt maximizes firm value. In contrast with most literature results, in the absence of constraints, higher volatility may increase initial debt for firms with low initial revenues, issuing long term debt that expires after the investment option maturity. This effect, which is due to the option value of receiving the value of assets and remaining tax savings, does not hold for short term debt and firms with high profitability, where an increase in volatility reduces the firm value. The importance of short-term debt is reduced in the presence of non-negative equity net worth or debt financing constraints and firms behave more conservatively in the use of initial debt. With non-negative equity net worth, higher volatility has adverse effects on the firm value, while with debt financing constraints higher volatility may enhance firm value for firms with relatively low revenue that have out-of-the-money investment options.
JEL: 
G3
G32
G33
G1
Persistent Identifier of the first edition: 
Creative Commons License: 
cc-by-nc Logo
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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